Truth Test: 'Fabulously phony failure' attack ad on Patrick Murphy

A conservative group supporting Rubio is out with a new TV ad blitz calling Rep. Murphy a “fabulously phony failure."

Wednesday, October 12th 2016, 6:02 PM EDT by Chad Oliver

Updated:

Wednesday, October 12th 2016, 9:23 PM EDT

The balance of power in Washington hinges in part on Florida's Senate race. Republican incumbent Senator Marco Rubio is up against Representative Patrick Murphy, a Democrat from Jupiter representing Florida’s 18th Congressional District.

A conservative group supporting Rubio is out with a new TV ad blitz calling Murphy a “fabulously phony failure." The narrator says [it’s] "no wonder Murphy was named one of America's least-effective congressmen."

NBC2 Anchor Chad Oliver put that specific part of the ad through the NBC2 Truth Test.

NBC2 discovered the site only uses one metric: The number of bills someone sponsored and got through a Senate or House committee, and 24 of the 35 listed are Democrats.

That's not surprising considering Republicans control both chambers and which bills actually get a vote.

“In order to understand your representative, in order to understand what Congress is doing, you have to look at a lot of numbers,” said Govtrack.us founder Josh Tauberer. “Because what they're doing is very complicated."

American Future Fund is the group spending nearly $2 million running this Murphy attack ad.

Bottom line: any member of the minority party in Congress will struggle to get his or her bills passed. Slapping the least effective label on Murphy is partly true but mostly misleading.

NBC2 grades this ad: Mostly False.

According to the Real Clear Politics average of recent polls, Murphy is down five points against Sen. Rubio.